Molded trimming



Sept- 1, 1931 H. w. BUHLER 1,820,934

MOLDED TRIMMING Filed June l5, 1928 f/4220 /ZZUI' latented Sept. 1931 HENRY W. BUHLER, OF'GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS MOLDED TRIMMING Application filed June 15, 1928. Serial No. 285,640.

This invention relates to a molded trimming, an elongate strand or strip structure suitable for use as an architectural or upholstery element, or as a core giving form to an encasing tubulature, or fitting a slotted trimming, respectively providing a decorative ultimate surface or a seat for the elongate strand or strip of this invention.

The motor-car body, railway and other passenger vehicle building and the house and furniture building industries find increasing need for strip-form molded trimmings, both for exterior and for interior use in the bodies of cars or carriages, as well as for such purposes as providing glass-retaining mouldings on or stops and packings for window or door closures, providing edge or seam covering trimming for upholstery, and providing surface relief for decoration or rain-water flow directors, for examples only, for the exterior surfaces. These industries principally rely for these purposes on cloth or artificial leather or sometimes metal tubulatures, strip pipings, 'or mounting bases for such molded trimmings now appearing in considerable quantities interiorly or exteriorly of the vehicle body, the interior trim of rooms in houses, or the trim for cabinet work, furniture and/other household utilities.

For these uses this invention provides a molded trimming of a reliably constant crosssectional form, preferably externally covered with a textile fabric having transverse flexibility to bend about a narrow angle in the direction of its width and in the direction of its thickness, but adapted to resist deformation either of its cross-sectional shape or of its dimensions of width or thickness, and in a. preferred form provided with a longitudinal seat for the heads of nails, tacks, screws. or other fasteners, by which the molded trimming is attached to the thing of which it is to become a part, either for some functional utility or for decoration. The present invention is not primarily concerned with the exterior covering, or any supporting or conlining metallic or other channel in which the molded strip of the invention may be included. one characteristic of the invention being that it prow'des a shape for a filling REISSUED or inclusion indifi'erently applicable to any kind of channel or tubulature relied upon for the exterior surface of the moulding or trim,

' stop or abutment for which the device is used.

explained by de- The invention will now be scription of preferred species only, by way of illustration of the genus or class of such devices constituting the invention.

In the accompanying drawings,

Fig. 1 is a pleted strip.;

Fig. 2 is a cross section of a core suitable for the molded strip of Fig. 1;

Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are views similar to Fig. 2, showing molded cores of different shapes in cross section;

Fig. Sis an elevation of applied by bending lesser thickness; and l Fig. 9 is a cross section of one of the molded cores before final treatment, showing it as a modification of a plurality of strands 10.

lReferring now to Fig. 1, the. core 1 of a. typical instance of this manufacture may in use. be entered into any appropriate cover or sheath 2, for example a braided or circular- Woven tubulature of hard elastic yarns, for example mohair. To stuff such a tubular coveringas the textile tubulature 2 and cause a molded trimming in the direction of its it to retain its form, the core 1 is entered into it during or after making, and the covered trimming laid to position, including such shortbends or turns 3 as the flexibility of the cover or -sheath will permit, and tacked or nailed through at 4. The described kind of covering sheath 2 permits the heads of nails to pass through its texture, which will close over the nail head. But the core 1 may be provided with any kind of sheath, and, for example, if the structure is an exterior structure for an vautomobile body, the core 1 and cover 2, or t-he core 1 only, may very well be used merely to fill the open exterior portion of a channel of metal, itself fastened to the car body. v

Such a core as 1 covered with cloth, artificial leather, or any other suitable covering, may be relied upon for such a structural adjunct as a beading to hold in-glass, as a stop in a framed aperture to hold in Window or plan view of an applied comdoor frames, or as a moulding abutment against which a hinged door or window comes to rest. For these uses the core may have such a form as that typically shown 1nv -Fig. 3, which is in' cross section a modied quadrant of a circle; or in Fig. .4, in which the cross section 1s rectangular; or in Fig. 5

- or Fig. 6, in which the cross section is recmany purposes tile strands.l

'from yarns spun from tangular on one edge and rounded on the other. In any of these cases, the ultimate exterior surface, if any, .being vaIpialglLgS. ,.tradename for athin,

not shown.

- Whatever the form of thel device in cross "section, the present invention contemplates a construction madeA by textile methods and preferably comprising a composite core-1 having an exterior sheath constructed of a plurality' of referably uniform strands 6, these strands eing so laid on the remainder of the core 1 as to impose no inhibition to lateral transverse bends of the kind indicated in Fig. 1, or at 3a in Fig. 8. The core covering 5 to meet these conditions, although it may be made otherwise, is preferably braided uniform strips of such yarns being useful for for which cotton and other more usual textile fibers are employed and being hereafter included with suchother materials under the general designation of tex- One reason for the preference of the braided structure for the core cover lies in the characteristic of a braid made by machine methods to resist elongation by compression of what is included inthe area tough paper,

`braided around, and in the further char- .Y 4 "or weaving together braiding carriers,

acteristic of a braided structure of adaptability to be conformed to a particular cross section at the beginnn of its concatenation y the operation of the shape of the fabric being controlled by al throat, guide or die having a hole in it of the shape desired for the braid. By braiding through such throat or templet, enough of the longitudinal interwoven and surroundin yarns of the braid exactly to accommodate the final position of the braided yarns in relation to the v relatively incompressible core may be provided with accuracy, if, as is the recommended case, the strands -6 are themselves of rigid uniformity, having the same weight, the same mass, the same twist, the same diameter and the same density per unit length. The braided covering 5 imposes no limitation whatever on retention of shape under moulding pressure, such -as may be later exerted on the braided c over 5 and its inclusions. For these rea sons, the approximate form of the typical cross sections of Figs. 2 to 7 for example, may be im osed in a braiding machine and a later moldlng operation may be relied upon exactly to conform the cross-sectional area of the completed c ore, including its covering 5,

by compression between rolls, in a Haring die, or between a die and one or more rolls cooperating together.

The cover of the core 1 is filled by including in it longitudinal strands of filler strand material. Merely for the duty of providing a iexible, relatively incompressible illing, 1 am aware of no more satisfactory substance than soft spun yarnsvof hard paper, such as kraft vpaper so-called. Kraft paper [is a tough and exible paper made of inherently strong fibers, which have been subjected to no treatment likely to injure their tensile strength. Such papers are readily spun to standard sizes of yarns by the Wet method, and, starting from uniform strips, the dimensions, longitudinal elasticity, lateral compressibility and constancy of weight per unit length of such yarns are extremely reliable. When making such shapes as those indicated, which are 4typical of many other useful shapes, it is preferred to fill the templet or throat of the braidin machine making the cover 5 with a precalgc'ulated core, of whatever strand material, exactly corresponding under a given state of compression to the void in the cover 5'.

For purposes now to be mentioned, thel included stuffing comprised of longitudinally ,extending stuflings, preferably, for example, may havefother elements of a different character, and of course it Will be understood that in many situations, as shown for instance in Fig. 7 at 8a, in many cases it may be desirable that not all of the Studer yarns 8 shall be of the same size', those shown at 8 by way of illustration being intended to occupy the interior of a sharp exterior angle in the finished form of the cover 5, being, fbiL example, relatively small and thin yarns.

'In instances where it is desirable, for example, to fasten on the trimming by nails or tac s, it is preferred to provide for a seat for the head of tack or other fastener as well as to facilitate penetration by nail or tack through a less impenetrable mass than that furnished by the stuer yarns 8. For this purpose there maybe distributed in the stuiing wit-hin the cover 5 at the proper place for penetration one or more relativel soft and compressible elongate stuf'ers of t e kindshown at '10 in Figs.,2 to 7, and 9, and characteristically comprlsing a bundle of soft and more penetrable fibrous material than the aper stulfer yarns 8. The preferred way of) making the penetrable' stuiers 10 is togather together in a trumpet guide a seriesy of laminations of crepe paper 'which may be impregnated with a suitable cement (for example a` gum in a solvent) before or after making, or, to serve the same purposes,the core 10 might be a rov- *ing or bundled sliver of a cardable fiber or even a bundle 'of spun textile yarns. Whatever 4the materialof which the soft stuier 10 1 tion of the dies or rolls.

65 the edge of a glass these of approximately the V t1on of a channel as at 25, and by preference its condition and previous or subsequent treatment should be such as to make it stiiiy plastic, so that it retains the cross section imposed upon it by compression or otherwise.

For some kinds of difficult usages to which trimming strips are subject, it is desirable to insure that the headed tacks or nails 15, Figs. 2 and 6, for example, can not have their heads pulled through the core 1. it should be possible to drive the nails or tacks so deeply as to bury their heads below the outer layer conforming to the boundary and cross section of the core strip. It is also most desirable that the stuffer structure -i`nclude a flexible form retaining element such as a relatively flexible metal longitudinal strip or Wire, preferably an annealed soft iron Wire or wires. For example, a pair of wires 16. 16, may be distributed to lie on either side of the soft core 10, and this structure, without substantial variations, may be used in such forms and cross section as those illustrated in Figs. 3, 4, 5 and The exible but relatively stiff longitudinal inclusions in the core are useful to prevent a form once imposed on the molded trimming from spontaneous change, which is of importance in forming the molded trimming to curvatures such at at 3 or at 3l in Fig. 8, enabling the trimming to be formed in place and subsequently fastened down by nailing. Or, as illustrated in Fig. 6, or in Fig. 3, the strips or wires 16 may be used relatively near-the outer faces of the cross-sectional configuration in order to provide special resistance to expected .stress against those faces of the moulding or trimming.

In any inst-ance of the manufactures reprel sented by Way of illustration of the invention, it will be understood that the steps of the formation preferably comprise the making of a braided shape, including the stufer members 8, and 16, or an one or more of dlesired cross section by braldlng through a properly formed throat or template; and thereafter to impose upon this preformed braided shape-an accurate cross section, preferably by compression, for example, in a die diagrammatically indicated in dotted lines at 20 in Fig. 2, with which there may cooperate a compression roll 21, or, as shown in Fig, 3, the entire shape may be imposed by a pair of rollers 22, 23, elements of Whose surfaces define respectively two or more faces of the completed shape. v In Figs. 2 to 6 the cross-sectional figure l shown includes a longitudinal depression 25,

preferably formed after assembly by the acf- This depression, to of tacks, or receive panel, is Apermitted to be accommodate the heads i On the other-hand...

made by the relatively compressible nature of the stufers 10.

It will further be understood that retention of the molded shape may be assisted by an impregnation prior to die forming either by dies or rolls with a suitable cementitious plastic impregnant. Such an impregnant may comprise any suitable rubber cement; for example, a rubber cement compounded of rubber latex, with or Without an included filler,.and a suitable solvent, or a rubber cement comprising about 20% of rubber compound, including filler, if any, and about 80% of a volatile, such as gasoline. In practice the completed braids are charged with the impregnant by running them repeatedly through a tank of the cementitious substance, excess is removed by scraping; and the -core is then run in the air with or without heat for a suicient distance to dry off a portion of the cement solvent; and the prepared strip is then subjected to the act-ion of dies such as those illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3. Preferably the dies are cold, but\with some varieties of impregnants it may be desirable to heat them. At hi h speeds friction may be relied upon to leep the dies or rolls properly Warm for compression to molded shape. Whether the material is dry or impregnated.

I claim: v

1. Molded trimming which is strong, flexible and capable of bending sharply Without breaking and of retaining its shape after bending comprising an aggregate of longitudinally extending stufi'er strands and a surrounding cover of concatenated strands, the strands of each set being characterized by uniformity of mass, tensile elongation and lateral compressibilit concatenated to conform to a non-circular cross section.

' 2. ,'Molded trimming comprising an elongate strip of longitudinally extending stui'er elements and a surrounding cover of concatenated strands each characterized by uniformity of mass, tensile elongation and lateral compressibility, concatenated to conform to a non-circular cross section, the

stutter elements including a relatively soft and penetrable longitudinal stuffer strand.

3. Molded trimming which is strong, iiexible and capable of bending sharply Without breaking and of retaining its shape after bending comprising a plurality of longitudiv nally extending ibrous stui'er strands and a surrounding cover of concatenated strands. the strands of each set being characterized by uniformity of mass, tensile elongation and lateral compressibility, concatenated to conform to a non-circular cross section, and a iexible metallic strand included with the fibrous stuifer strands.`

4. Molded trimming comprisin an elongate strip of longitudlnally exten ing stuiferelements and a surrounding cover of concatenated strands each characterized by uniconstant cross section inrespect to mass perv unit length and compressibility, certain of said stuffers being`more compressible than others.

6. Molded trimming comprising abraided cover of mol-dable textile strands, longitudinally' extending stufers having in the aggregate a constant cross section in respect to mass per unit length and compressibility, certain of said stuffers being more compressible and more penetrable than others.

7. Molded trimming comprising a braided cover of moldable textile strands, longitudinally extending stufi'ers having in the aggregate a constant cross section in respect to mass per unit length and compressibility, certain of said stuffers beingmore compressible and certain of said stufl'ers being more pene-- trable than others.

8. Molded trimming comprising a braided cover of moldable textile strands, longitudinally extending stuffers having in the aggre gate a constant cross section in respectto mass per unit length and compressibility, certain of said stufers being more compressible and more penetrable than others, the trimming having a non-circular cross section.

9. Molded trimming comprising a braided cover of moldable textile strands, longitudinally extending stuf'ers having in the aggregate a constantl cross section in respect to massV per unit length and compressibility,

certain of said stuffers being more compres- P than others, the

sible and more penetrable strand having a molded cross section including a longitudinal depression opposite a compressible stuffer.

10. Mo'lded trimming comprising a braid-v ed cover, of moldable. textile strands, longitudinally extending stuifers having in the aggregate a constant cross section in respect to mass per unit length and compressibility, certain. of said stufers being more compres- `sible and more penetrable than'others, and certain of said stuffers being metallic and yrelatively rigid, whereby to provide `for re.

tention of bent forms of the trimming.

11. Molded trimming comprising a braided' cover of moldable textile strands,-and longitudinally extending stuflers having in the aggregate a constant cross section in respect to mass per unit length and compressibility, the structure being interpenetrated by a cementitious plastic adhesive and having a non-circularcross sectioncomprising a longitudmal compressed depression.y

12. Molded trimming comprising a.sur

rounding covering of molded textile strands regularly concatenated into a tubular fabric, and longitudinally extending of constant aggregate volume, compressibility at one'of the stuffer strands being vmore readily capable of lateral compression than certain other stufler strands although retentive of its compressed form, the trimming having an exterior longitudinal depression corresponding' to the position of said more compressible strand or strands. v

13. Molded trimming comprising a surrounding covering of molded textile regularlyconcatenated into a tubular fabric and longitudinally extending stuer strands of constant aggregate volume, Weight and compressibility at any cross section, one at least of the stuffer strands being more -readily capable weight and of lateralcompresslon than certain other stuffer strands although retentive of its compressed. form,the `trimming having a longitudinally extending compressed groove in` its outer covering and a correspondingly compressed internal stuffer. f l 14. Molded trimming comprising a surrounding covering of molded textile strands regularly concatenated into a tubular fabric, and longitudinally. extending stufer strands of constant aggregate volume, weight and compressibility at any cross section, one or more of the stuffer strands being stifliy plastic and more-readily capable of vlateral compression than certain other stuffer 'strands although retentive'of its compressed form, and one or more4 of said-stufl'er strands being metallic .and flexible, the .trimming having exterior longitudinal depression corresponding to the position-of said more comressible strandor strands. y f

15. Method of making a molded trimming comprising as-a step braiding a cover of uniform strands abouta stufi'er aggregate of constant mass, densityand compressibility, the braiding strands and stuffer being'held toa noncircular cross section during assembly. of stufle'rand cover, and thereafter subjecting the trimming to molding pressure accurately to conform its cross-sectional area to said non-circular cross` section. l 16. Method vof making a molded trimming comprising as a step braiding a coverof uniform strands about lafstufcr aggregate of constant mass, density and compressibility, the braiding strands and'stuffer being held' to a non-circular cross section during assembly of stuffer and-cover, impregnating the trimming vwith a cementitious impregnant, and 'thereafter subjectingv the trimming to molding pressure accurately to conform `its Across sectional area to said non-circular cross section. y

stuer strandsany cross section, at leastl strands l this thirteenth day of June,

17. Method of making a molded trimming comprising as a step braiding a cover of uniform strands about a stutter aggregate of constant mass, density and compressibility, the braiding strands and stutfer being held to a non-circular cross section during assembly of stutter and cover, impregnating the trimmining with a eementitious impregnant containing a volatile solvent, evaporat-ing a portion of the solvent, and thereafter subjecting the trimming to molding pressure accurately to conform Vits cross sectional area to said non-circular cross section.

18. Art of making a molded trimming comprising the steps, braiding a cover around an aggregate of longitudinally extending stuffers, one at least of which is relatively more compressible than others, and thereafter subjecting the trimming to local 1ongitudinal compression to form a groove in the braided cover by compressing the cover and said more compressible stutter. l

19. Moldable trimming comprising a set of longitudinally extending strands, one at least of said strands consisting of laminated crepe paper impregnated with abinding adhesive agent and a Wrapper comprising f twisted paper strands, said moulding being of substantially constant non-circular cross section in respect to mass per unit of length and compressibility.

Signed by me at Boston, Massachusetts,

HENRY W. BUHLER. 

